36: Moment of Truth - Part One
It was as though the world had vanished behind a contorted lens and a mystery puppet master had seized his strings and forced his body into automatic motions unsanctioned by his brain. Numb-minded, battling down a swell of violent and contrasting emotion, Remus later only vaguely recalled that it was he who had restrained Harry as he had half risen beneath the cloak with death in his green eyes, clamping one hand emphatically across the young man’s mouth to still a cry of fury as the other seized and restrained his wand arm to prevent the furious charge intended to end in the annihilation of the man who had sold his parents to their doom. Hazily, he recalled a brief, if mercifully silent struggle, remembered glimpses of Rebekah’s confused but determined eyes as she came to his aid and then suddenly, Harry was still once more, his eyes filled with a dangerous cocktail of suppressed rage and unspoken apology as the clank of the lift that carried Peter from his reach faded away into nothing. A few seconds later, Dolph’s footsteps had also faded out of earshot.
And then in a rippling flurry, Tonks reappeared out of the hazy distortion beneath the shadowy desk, bumping her head only once as she crawled out on all fours and heaved herself upright. Grasping her wand firmly, she turned to face the corner into which her three companions had been shoved.
“Come on,” she whispered sternly. “We don’t have much time.”
Mechanically obedient, Remus pulled himself to his feet as Harry also rocketed upright beside him, emerald gaze still rich with barely concealed rage, as surges of tightly repressed anger flowed out from his body in waves.
Tonks’ eyes fixed on the young man instantly. “Don’t even think about it,” she admonished sharply. “I know who that was behind Cymone’s face as well as you do and I know what the bastard’s done in his time. Trust me Harry; every person in this room would like the chance to smack that little rat Pettigrew into orbit almost as much as you do right now. But now is not the time. There are more than twenty innocent lives we have to save first.” She turned brusquely to Rebekah. “Go with Harry and get down that ladder. I want everyone out of here ASAP.”
Rebekah nodded, her fingers still clutching the bundle of wands. “Here,” she said suddenly, drawing a long, dark ebony wand from the cluster and pressing it into Tonks’ hand. “If you do get trapped after moonrise, this will enable you to open the internal doors. They’re keyed to staff wands only.”
Tonks raised the dark wand slowly. “Isn’t this…”
Rebekah grinned tightly. “Croll’s. It seemed appropriate.”
Tonks grinned back. “Thanks. Now get out of here. And take him with you.”
She nodded at Harry. The young man glanced back at her, and to Remus’ surprise, suddenly gave an impetuous smile of his own.
“Tonks,” he said with almost casual thoughtfulness. “Didn’t I hear them say that most of the Death Eaters in the building were gathered in one ground floor room to watch the slaughter of the staff?”
The Auror eyed him warily. “Harry…”
He shrugged in response. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on charging in with wand blazing. But if someone were to accidentally wand seal that door closed…”
Tonks’ answering grin was outright gleeful. “That would be… unfortunate.” Her expression grew abruptly more serious. “But that someone isn’t to take any risks. If it’s a choice between sealing the door and getting out, get out. I mean it.”
Harry nodded. “I will. Rebekah?”
“Coming.” It was almost a shock to Remus to realise that his cousin was suddenly staring at him. Her eyes were solemn and serious. “Good luck, Remus,” she said softly.
Remus met her gaze with equal gravity, pulling himself out of his shocked stupor with sheer determination. “Good luck to you too. And Rebekah…” His shoulders tightened at the thought, but he couldn’t bear the idea of what would happen at Winter Hollow if he failed to emerge come the morning. “If anything happens to me…”
Rebekah gave a wan but understanding smile. “I’ll look out for your father. You have my word.”
Remus managed a smile in return. “Thank you.”
Rebekah nodded slightly in acknowledgement. And then, turning away, she joined Harry and moved hurriedly out of the room.
And that left only Tonks.
For a moment, he could only stare at her. It was strange to think that it had been less than twenty-four hours ago that they had stood together in this very room and all but screamed at each other with the force of their emotions. The woman he loved but refused to love, the woman he wanted but dared not have, the woman who loved him but truly shouldn’t “ so much had befallen them both in so short a space of time that their tortured exchange seemed a vast eternity ago. She was his hope and his despair all at once.
Merlin, if things were different, if we lived in another world…
Tonks swallowed hard, her mind apparently dwelling briefly upon similar ideas. “Come on,” she said softly. “We’re running out of time.”
They moved rapidly then, side by side as they swept into the corridor at a very brisk walk that verged on running and headed back once more for the lift near the boardroom that gave access to Zelia’s lab. A run would have perhaps been more speedy in the short time, but both knew that rushing blindly would probably only result in numerous delays to pick Tonks up. Remus could feel Tonks’ eyes raking the side of his face but determinedly he did not turn to meet her gaze.
“Are you all right?” Her voice, when it came, was soft and low. “You know, with Peter Pettigrew and everything…”
He did not falter in his rapid step. “Fine.”
“Liar.”
This time he did turn his head. “Well, what did you expect me to say?” he retorted hotly. “No, I’m not fine? That I’m trying to face the fact that my former friend, the friend who sold out James, Lily and Sirius, is here and was willing to condemn me to what he knows is my nightmares personified? That it was all I could do to shut myself down before I leapt up and joined Harry in pounding him down to a greasy pulp? Is that what you expected me to say?”
“No,” she replied easily. “But it’s what I expected you to feel. Remus…” Gently, she her fingers brushed against his as they walked hurriedly on. “I know you’ve been balancing on a knife edge for a while now and after what Dolph said, I’ve a pretty good idea as to why. And that’s why you can’t afford to bottle these things up. You’ve got enough pre-moon tension as it is without adding another couple of tonnes of mental pressure just because you won’t say what you’re really feeling.”
He managed not to snap but it was a close run thing. “And you know what I’m really feeling, do you?”
“No.” She shrugged, her dark eyes brimming with a mixture of determination, seriousness and compassion. “That’s why you need to tell me. Preferably before you burst.”
She’s right.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to shout. He wanted to kick the floor and pound the walls until his skin was raw. But the sensible, logical human part of him that was always Remus Lupin was telling him quite emphatically that Nymphadora Tonks had a point. Pressure that was not vented could only build to breaking point.
“I should have known.” The words slipped out like a hiss of breath.
Her eyes searched his face, intense. “Should have known what?”
“That it was him.” He sighed deeply. “That it was Peter. The signs were there; the body language, the way of speaking, the mannerisms, they were all Peter, all the boy I spent seven years of my life seeing almost every day. But I didn’t see them.” His voice rasped bitterly. “I wasn’t looking for them.”
“You had no reason to suspect…”
“I had every reason.” He cut her off sharply. “He knows about werewolves, knows about me. I should have known he’d be involved and I should have seen him from the start. He almost told you, remember, the very first day we were here? He told you he’d had a bad run in with a werewolf once and that’s why he was nervous around me.” He grimaced. “Iwas that werewolf. I tried to kill him once, would have killed him if Harry hadn’t stepped in. But that’s not why he was nervous. He was afraid because every moment he spent around me, he was expecting me to recognise him, expose him, thwart their plans before completion. And I didn’t. I didn’t see a thing.” He shook his head slowly. “And now, for my blindness, forty innocent werewolves face enslavement by Lord Voldemort. I’ve condemned them to losing their souls.”
Her fingers entwined with his abruptly, soft, warm and reassuring. “That’s not going to happen, Remus,” she said, her words vibrating with profound sincerity. “Rebekah and the kids will raise the alarm. Kingsley and Dumbledore will have this place swarming with Aurors long before there’s time to administer the Kiss to anyone.”
“And if something goes wrong? If they can’t get inside quickly enough?”
Her fingers squeezed. “Don’t be such a fatalist.”
His smile was bitter and humourless. “Can I help it if that’s the way my life tends to go?”
Tonks’ eyes burned against him but he ignored her gaze, stepping forward as they arrived at the silver grill that gave access to lab on Level Four. A quick tap of his wand severed the lock and together, he and Tonks hauled the lattice open.
And found darkness and a drop. The lift was gone.
“Lumos!”
With Remus’ steadying hand on her shoulder, Tonks leaned forwards and carefully peered inside, her wand extended before her as it cast an arching beam of light into the void.
“Smashed.” She reported solemnly. “I can see twisted remains at the bottom of the shaft.” Unsteadily she staggered backwards, one hand grasping Remus’ robes for support. “I get the feeling that Dolph wasn’t keen on the Wolfsbane being accessible.”
Remus was already rolling up his sleeves. “We’ll have to climb down. Or levitate.”
“We can do that on the way back.” Tonks brushed passed him, leaning once more into the dark abyss as Remus almost instinctively grasped her elbow. She flashed him a brief smile as she extended her wand once more. “But the quickest way down is to jump.”
Remus blinked. “Tonks, that drop has to be more than eight metres. We’ll break our legs!”
“Not necessarily. Watch this.” Grinning now, Tonks whirled her wand in a circle, muttering under her breath. There was a flare of light and an odd, glooping sound.
Tonks beamed as she stepped back, shaking off Remus’ protective hold. “Perfect,” she exclaimed. “Come on then.”
And before Remus could stop her, before he could even open his mouth to enquire, Tonks had stepped off the edge and vanished.
“Tonks!” Almost without thinking, Remus plunged forward, snatching desperately at the thin air that had a moment before held an Auror, but then gravity intervened and suddenly he was falling too, tumbling head over heel into dark, empty air, down and down towards sharp, twisted metal and the heavy impact of the drop. The floor plunged towards him, racing up to meet him, to smash his bones to powder…
And he bounced.
There was no twisted metal, no stab of sharp points or crunch of bones. Instead, he rebounded and then dropped abruptly once more to lie, shocked and frozen in a strange bed of soft, spongy material that rippled softly from the impact.
He blinked. What the…?
And then Tonks’ grinning face filled his vision. “Come on, Remus!” she exclaimed, grasping his hand as she pulled him upright and onto the solid ground of the passageway where the lift, before its unfortunate demise, had previously unloaded its passengers. “Up you get!”
By the light of her now illuminated wand, Remus could see the rippling bed of foamy cushioning had spread across the entire base of the shaft. Curiously, he extended on foot and pushed against it. It wobbled invitingly
“How did you do this?” Turning away from the oddly appealing cushion, he directed the question to Tonks, who had already bent to examine the lab’s locked door, a yard or two down the corridor. “I transfigured it,” she told him absently, tapping at the door with her wand. “It’s an old trick of my mum’s. Every time she saw me climbing something more than about two foot high, she would use that spell on the ground underneath. That stuff’s probably saved me from about fifty broken bones in its time.”
Almost in spite of himself, Remus laughed softly. “Smart woman, your mother. I can see where you get your ingenuity from.”
The smile that Tonks’ flashed over her shoulder was almost shy. “Thanks.”
Her eyes met his. And held.
There was long moment of silence. Unspoken words flowed between them like a river.
This isn’t the time!
Sharply breaking their mutual gaze, Remus cleared his throat. “The door?” he prompted hoarsely.
“Right!” Tonks’ head whipped back to face the lock once more, wand once more tracing circles. After a few moments more, there came a click.
Tonks climbed awkwardly to her feet. “Got it,” she stated, her voice for some reason at a slightly higher pitch than was normal. “Shall we?”
Remus nodded. Carefully, he reached out and pushed the door open. Automatically, the lights flickered on.
And illuminated the scene of devastation beyond.
The room was in ruins. Tables lay overturned beside splintered chair and the shelves had ripped from the walls altogether, their contents strewn across the room in a chaotic mess of shattered glass, ripped paper and steaming slicks of liquid. The heavy cauldron that had formed the centrepiece of the room had been cleaved clean down the middle, spilling its sludgy brown contents into a sticky puddle of goo that mingled with liquids of other consistencies and hues and burped bubbles and green tinged smoke into the air where they touched. Everywhere lay shattered vials and potion bottles with no hint that any had survived.
Remus suddenly had a strong feeling about what Gibbon had been asked to take care of.
Tonks was right. Dolph really didn’t want anyone to get hold of the Wolfsbane.
Remus stared at the cauldron. Full of Wolfsbane, Zelia had said, the final batch for that day, due to be distributed just after Croll’s ill-fated meeting. And if that was gone, she had told him of emergency supplies, saved from the batch of the day before and poured into a series of carefully sealed black bottles, marked with a wolf’s head that would keep it fresh from thirty-odd hours after brewing.
The cauldron was clearly a lost cause. Its contents had already mingled with other brews and soured beyond all usefulness. But could a bottle have survived this furore? And could they find it in time if it had?
At his side, Tonks had dropped to a crouch, her finger sifting through the debris before seizing upon something and lifting it into the light. Her brow furrowed as she extended her arm and passed it to Remus.
He stared down. Thick, black glass, a bottle smashed in two. An engraved wolf’s head glinted as he turned it.
“Well,” Tonks’ voice was shaky as she rose to stand at Remus’ side once more, her fingers squeezing his upper arm in an odd gesture of mutual reassurance. “It looks like we’ve got a search on our hands.”